Members of the community participated in the Coal of Africa Mine community awareness summit, at an event at the Mudimeli sports grounds a fortnight ago.

The community of Mudimeli also raised concerns regarding the renaming of the mine. The mine was named after the Venda warrior, Makhado.

According to the director of strategic and community liaison, Prof Alfred Nevhutanda, the main objective was to brief the community about the operation of the mine and what people should expect regarding the mine. “We wanted the community to get the information concerning what the mine is going to do,” he said.

Asked about the renaming of the mine, about which a lot of community members indicated that they had not been consulted and that the name Makhado was not right for the mine, Nevhutanda said Coal of Africa wanted a Venda name for the mining project and the community had been offered a chance to submit the names they thought were suitable. “The issue of the renaming of the mine is nothing. The most important thing here is that people should appreciate the fact that the mine is bringing a lot of opportunities for the villagers. The mine is going to employ 1000 people and the community should be happy about that,” said Nevhutanda.

Mayor Glory Mashaba of the Makhado Municipality added that she was happy that the mine had brought a lot of opportunities to the people of Mudimeli. The event was made possible by the Makhado Old Mutual Group Scheme, which donated R10 000, which was used to organize the summit. According to Nevhutanda, the bursary scheme which the mine initiated will help to train community members with skills needed in the mine for them to become relevant to the programmes in the mine.

He added that it was his duty to see that the community also benefited from the mine. “We don’t want to see companies that only come to take the wealth and do not care about the community. It is good to see that this mine is ready to assist the community with jobs and bursaries,” he outlined.